This is a more detailed do-over of a failed install I encountered earlier today while testing debian-live-10.9.0-i386-cinnamon+nonfree.iso during the 10.9 release testing party on #debian-cd. At the time, we thought this problem comes
from not enough memory on the target machine, which is a Gateway Pentium III, with 384 MB of RAM. On this do-over, I frequently checked the output of 'free' on VC2, and never saw the free memory drop below 200,000 bytes. I manually added swap from /dev/sdb1 at time 02:15; the installer declared "Low memory mode" and automatically added swap from /dev/sda3 at time 03:14; but from watching the output of 'free' I don't think any swap was ever used. Below is the
complete syslog from the failed install (the last few lines about /dev/sdc are the USB stick I used to copy out the syslog). At the point I copied out the syslog to USB, 'free' told me this:

Free Total Used Free
MEM 378196 32740 245888
SWAP 1959888 0 1959888

I probably should make this into a bug report, but I don't know what package to complain about. Any guidance would be welcome.

That installer is still sitting there on the Pentium, a red background screen "Installation step failed". I can poke it further if anyone has suggestions, or
I can rerun the installer with any suggested variations.

Here is the syslog, from selecting D-I text mode from the Live image on DVD: Mar 28 02:15:17 syslogd started: BusyBox v1.30.1
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: klogd started: BusyBox v1.30.1 (Debian 1:1.30.1-4)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.000000] Linux version 4.19.0-16-686 (debian-kernel@lists.debian.org) (gcc version 8.3.0 (Debian 8.3.0-6)) #1 SMP Debian 4.19.181-1 (2021-03-19)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.000000] x86/fpu: x87 FPU will use FXSAVE
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000000009f3ff] usable
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000000009f400-0x000000000009ffff] reserved
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000000e7000-0x00000000000fffff] reserved
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000100000-0x00000000040fd7ff] usable
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000040fd800-0x00000000040ff7ff] ACPI data
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000040ff800-0x00000000040ffbff] ACPI NVS
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000040ffc00-0x0000000017ffffff] usable
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000fffe7000-0x00000000ffffffff] reserved
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.000000] Notice: NX (Execute Disable) protection missing in CPU!
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.000000] SMBIOS 2.1 present.
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.000000] DMI: Gateway /WS440BX, BIOS 4W4SB0X0.15A.0015.P10 09/28/1999
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.000000] tsc: Fast TSC calibration using PIT Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.000000] tsc: Detected 596.919 MHz processor Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027428] e820: update [mem 0x00000000-0x00000fff] usable ==> reserved
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027442] e820: remove [mem 0x000a0000-0x000fffff] usable
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027470] last_pfn = 0x18000 max_arch_pfn = 0x100000
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027502] MTRR default type: uncachable
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027508] MTRR fixed ranges enabled:
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027518]   00000-9FFFF write-back
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027526]   A0000-BFFFF uncachable
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027533]   C0000-C7FFF write-protect
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027541]   C8000-DFFFF uncachable
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027548]   E0000-FFFFF write-protect
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027553] MTRR variable ranges enabled:
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027563]   0 base 000000000 mask FF0000000 write-back
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027572]   1 base 010000000 mask FF8000000 write-back
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027578]   2 disabled
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027583]   3 disabled
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027588]   4 disabled
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027593]   5 disabled
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027598]   6 disabled
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.027604]   7 disabled
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.029266] x86/PAT: PAT not supported by CPU. Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.030092] x86/PAT: Configuration [0-7]: WB  WT  UC- UC  WB  WT  UC- UC  
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.100290] initial memory mapped: [mem 0x00000000-0x10ffffff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.100622] RAMDISK: [mem 0x16f85000-0x17ffffff] Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.100659] ACPI: Early table checksum verification disabled
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101283] ACPI: RSDP 0x00000000000F6AC0 000014 (v00 PTLTD )
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101308] ACPI: RSDT 0x00000000040FDA87 000028 (v01 PTLTD    RSDT   00000000 PTL  01000000)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101345] ACPI: FACP 0x00000000040FF78C 000074 (v01 GATEWA TABOR II 19990928 PTL  000F4240)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101387] ACPI: DSDT 0x00000000040FDAAF 001CDD (v01 GATEWA TABOR II 00000000 MSFT 01000000)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101417] ACPI: FACS 0x00000000040FFBC0 000040 Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101477] 0MB HIGHMEM available.
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101490] 384MB LOWMEM available.
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101499]   mapped low ram: 0 - 18000000 Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101508]   low ram: 0 - 18000000
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101540] Zone ranges:
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101549]   DMA      [mem 0x0000000000001000-0x0000000000ffffff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101562]   Normal   [mem 0x0000000001000000-0x0000000017ffffff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101575]   HighMem  empty
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101585] Movable zone start for each node
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101593] Early memory node ranges
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101604]   node   0: [mem 0x0000000000001000-0x000000000009efff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101615]   node   0: [mem 0x0000000000100000-0x00000000040fcfff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101626]   node   0: [mem 0x0000000004100000-0x0000000017ffffff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101640] Initmem setup node 0 [mem 0x0000000000001000-0x0000000017ffffff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.101653] On node 0 totalpages: 98203
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.121285]   DMA zone: 40 pages used for memmap
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.121295]   DMA zone: 0 pages reserved
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.121303]   DMA zone: 3998 pages, LIFO batch:0
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.121843]   Normal zone: 920 pages used for memmap
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.121850]   Normal zone: 94205 pages, LIFO batch:31
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.141528] Using APIC driver default
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.141669] ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0x8008
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.141701] Local APIC disabled by BIOS -- you can enable it with "lapic"
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.141712] APIC: disable apic facility
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.141720] APIC: switched to apic NOOP
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.141734] smpboot: Allowing 1 CPUs, 0 hotplug CPUs
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.141811] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x00000000-0x00000fff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.141826] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x0009f000-0x0009ffff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.141837] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x000a0000-0x000e6fff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.141847] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x000e7000-0x000fffff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.141860] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x040fd000-0x040fdfff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.141871] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x040fe000-0x040fefff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.141881] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x040ff000-0x040fffff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.141895] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x040ff000-0x040fffff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.141915] [mem 0x18000000-0xfffe6fff] available for PCI devices
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.141925] Booting paravirtualized kernel on bare hardware
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.141951] clocksource: refined-jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 7645519600211568 ns
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.142044] random: get_random_bytes called from start_kernel+0x81/0x475 with crng_init=0
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.142086] setup_percpu: NR_CPUS:32 nr_cpumask_bits:32 nr_cpu_ids:1 nr_node_ids:1
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.143199] percpu: Embedded 29 pages/cpu s87884 r0 d30900 u118784
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.143242] pcpu-alloc: s87884 r0 d30900 u118784 alloc=29*4096
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.143249] pcpu-alloc: [0] 0 
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.143345] Built 1 zonelists, mobility grouping on.  Total pages: 97243
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.143366] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/d-i/vmlinuz initrd=/d-i/initrd.gz priority=low
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.144812] Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.145391] Inode-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.145476] Initializing CPU#0
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.145515] Initializing HighMem for node 0 (00000000:00000000)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.175256] Memory: 360452K/392812K available (6658K kernel code, 642K rwdata, 2076K rodata, 844K init, 448K bss, 32360K reserved, 0K cma-reserved, 0K highmem)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.175301] virtual kernel memory layout:
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.175301]     fixmap  : 0xffd35000 - 0xfffff000   (2856 kB)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.175301]   cpu_entry : 0xff400000 - 0xff8e1000   (4996 kB)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.175301]     pkmap   : 0xfec00000 - 0xff000000   (4096 kB)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.175301]     vmalloc : 0xd8800000 - 0xfebfe000   ( 611 MB)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.175301]     lowmem  : 0xc0000000 - 0xd8000000   ( 384 MB)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.175301]       .init : 0xd0939000 - 0xd0a0c000   ( 844 kB)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.175301]       .data : 0xd06808d0 - 0xd0929800   (2723 kB)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.175301]       .text : 0xd0000000 - 0xd06808d0   (6658 kB)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.175336] Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode...Ok.
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.176312] SLUB: HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.176332] ftrace: allocating 29370 entries in 58 pages
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.249227] rcu: Hierarchical RCU implementation.
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.249257] rcu:  RCU restricting CPUs from NR_CPUS=32 to nr_cpu_ids=1.
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.249270] rcu: Adjusting geometry for rcu_fanout_leaf=16, nr_cpu_ids=1
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.273947] NR_IRQS: 2304, nr_irqs: 32, preallocated irqs: 16
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.274507] CPU 0 irqstacks, hard=(ptrval) soft=(ptrval)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.278246] Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.283020] console [tty0] enabled
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.283114] ACPI: Core revision 20180810
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.283504] ACPI: setting ELCR to 0200 (from 0e00)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.283614] APIC: Keep in PIC mode(8259)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.283692] clocksource: tsc-early: mask: 0xffffffffffffffff max_cycles: 0x89aaf57793, max_idle_ns: 440795228478 ns
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.283833] Calibrating delay loop (skipped), value calculated using timer frequency.. 1193.83 BogoMIPS (lpj=2387676)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.283933] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301 Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.284265] Security Framework initialized
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.284343] Yama: disabled by default; enable with sysctl kernel.yama.*
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.284575] AppArmor: AppArmor initialized
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.284773] Mount-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.284870] Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.286625] Last level iTLB entries: 4KB 32, 2MB 0, 4MB 2
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.286708] Last level dTLB entries: 4KB 64, 2MB 0, 4MB 8, 1GB 0
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.286781] Spectre V1 : Mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.286869] Spectre V2 : Mitigation: Full generic retpoline
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.286935] Spectre V2 : Spectre v2 / SpectreRSB mitigation: Filling RSB on context switch
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.287019] Speculative Store Bypass: Vulnerable Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.287084] L1TF: Kernel not compiled for PAE. No mitigation for L1TF
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.287218] MDS: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.300950] Freeing SMP alternatives memory: 24K Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.308409] smpboot: weird, boot CPU (#0) not listed by the BIOS
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.308495] smpboot: SMP disabled
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.309732] Performance Events: 
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.309744] no APIC, boot with the "lapic" boot parameter to force-enable it.
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.309875] no hardware sampling interrupt available.
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.309943] p6 PMU driver.
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.310007] ... version:                0
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.310068] ... bit width:              32
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.310127] ... generic registers:      2 Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.310187] ... value mask:             00000000ffffffff
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.310251] ... max period:             000000007fffffff
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.310314] ... fixed-purpose events:   0
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.310375] ... event mask:             0000000000000003
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.310858] rcu: Hierarchical SRCU implementation.
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.314428] NMI watchdog: Enabled. Permanently consumes one hw-PMU counter.
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.314782] smp: Bringing up secondary CPUs ... Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.314854] smp: Brought up 1 node, 1 CPU
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.314916] smpboot: Max logical packages: 1
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.314981] smpboot: Total of 1 processors activated (1193.83 BogoMIPS)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.315835] devtmpfs: initialized
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.317187] PM: Registering ACPI NVS region [mem 0x040ff800-0x040ffbff] (1024 bytes)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.317561] clocksource: jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 7645041785100000 ns
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.317668] futex hash table entries: 256 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.318015] pinctrl core: initialized pinctrl subsystem
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.319418] NET: Registered protocol family 16 Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.320239] audit: initializing netlink subsys (disabled)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.321332] cpuidle: using governor ladder
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.321404] cpuidle: using governor menu
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.321672] clocksource: pit: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 1601818034827 ns
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.321805] ACPI: bus type PCI registered
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.321877] acpiphp: ACPI Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.5
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.324527] PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfd983, last bus=1
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.324600] PCI: Using configuration type 1 for base access
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.324864] audit: type=2000 audit(1616897705.036:1): state=initialized audit_enabled=0 res=1
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.332192] HugeTLB registered 4.00 MiB page size, pre-allocated 0 pages
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.334093] ACPI: Added _OSI(Module Device)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.334168] ACPI: Added _OSI(Processor Device) Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.334236] ACPI: Added _OSI(3.0 _SCP Extensions)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.334300] ACPI: Added _OSI(Processor Aggregator Device)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.334368] ACPI: Added _OSI(Linux-Dell-Video) Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.334433] ACPI: Added _OSI(Linux-Lenovo-NV-HDMI-Audio)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.340612] ACPI: 1 ACPI AML tables successfully acquired and loaded
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.343495] ACPI: Interpreter enabled
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.343668] ACPI: (supports S0 S1 S5)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.343735] ACPI: Using PIC for interrupt routing
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.343912] PCI: Ignoring host bridge windows from ACPI; if necessary, use "pci=use_crs" and report a bug
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.344863] ACPI: Enabled 3 GPEs in block 00 to 0F
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.354871] ACPI: Power Resource [PFAN] (off) Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.381408] ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (domain 0000 [bus 00-ff])
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.381507] acpi PNP0A03:00: _OSC: OS supports [ASPM ClockPM Segments MSI]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.381604] acpi PNP0A03:00: _OSC failed (AE_NOT_FOUND); disabling ASPM
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.381689] acpi PNP0A03:00: fail to add MMCONFIG information, can't access extended PCI configuration space under this bridge.
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.386615] acpi PNP0A03:00: host bridge window [io  0x0cf8-0x0cff] (ignored)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.386626] acpi PNP0A03:00: host bridge window [io  0x0000-0x0cf7 window] (ignored)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.386635] acpi PNP0A03:00: host bridge window [io  0x0d00-0xffff window] (ignored)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.386644] acpi PNP0A03:00: host bridge window [mem 0x000a0000-0x000bffff window] (ignored)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.386652] acpi PNP0A03:00: host bridge window [mem 0x000c8000-0x000dffff window] (ignored)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.386661] acpi PNP0A03:00: host bridge window [mem 0x18000000-0xffdfffff window] (ignored)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.386667] PCI: root bus 00: using default resources
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.387025] PCI host bridge to bus 0000:00
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.387104] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [io  0x0000-0xffff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.387177] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [mem 0x00000000-0xffffffff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.387256] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [bus 00-ff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.387381] pci 0000:00:00.0: [8086:7190] type 00 class 0x060000
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.387426] pci 0000:00:00.0: reg 0x10: [mem 0xf8000000-0xfbffffff pref]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.387829] pci 0000:00:01.0: [8086:7191] type 01 class 0x060400
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.388161] pci 0000:00:07.0: [8086:7110] type 00 class 0x060100
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.388561] pci 0000:00:07.1: [8086:7111] type 00 class 0x010180
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.388632] pci 0000:00:07.1: reg 0x20: [io  0x1000-0x100f]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.388666] pci 0000:00:07.1: legacy IDE quirk: reg 0x10: [io  0x01f0-0x01f7]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.388747] pci 0000:00:07.1: legacy IDE quirk: reg 0x14: [io  0x03f6]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.388819] pci 0000:00:07.1: legacy IDE quirk: reg 0x18: [io  0x0170-0x0177]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.388891] pci 0000:00:07.1: legacy IDE quirk: reg 0x1c: [io  0x0376]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.389239] pci 0000:00:07.2: [8086:7112] type 00 class 0x0c0300
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.389311] pci 0000:00:07.2: reg 0x20: [io  0x1020-0x103f]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.389675] pci 0000:00:07.3: [8086:7113] type 00 class 0x068000
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.389690] * Found PM-Timer Bug on the chipset. Due to workarounds for a bug,
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.389690] * this clock source is slow. Consider trying other clock sources
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.389912] pci 0000:00:07.3: quirk: [io  0x8000-0x803f] claimed by PIIX4 ACPI
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.390005] pci 0000:00:07.3: quirk: [io  0x7000-0x700f] claimed by PIIX4 SMB
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.390346] pci 0000:00:0d.0: [5333:8a01] type 00 class 0x030000
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.390381] pci 0000:00:0d.0: reg 0x10: [mem 0xf0000000-0xf3ffffff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.390441] pci 0000:00:0d.0: reg 0x30: [mem 0x00000000-0x0000ffff pref]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.390731] pci 0000:00:0f.0: [1317:0985] type 00 class 0x020000
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.390767] pci 0000:00:0f.0: reg 0x10: [io  0x1400-0x14ff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.390785] pci 0000:00:0f.0: reg 0x14: [mem 0xf4000000-0xf40003ff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.390826] pci 0000:00:0f.0: reg 0x30: [mem 0x00000000-0x0001ffff pref]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.390893] pci 0000:00:0f.0: supports D1 D2
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.390902] pci 0000:00:0f.0: PME# supported from D0 D1 D2 D3hot D3cold
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.391193] pci 0000:00:10.0: [1057:5608] type 00 class 0x078000
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.391229] pci 0000:00:10.0: reg 0x10: [io  0x1800-0x18ff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.391247] pci 0000:00:10.0: reg 0x14: [mem 0xf4001000-0xf4001fff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.391343] pci 0000:00:10.0: supports D2
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.391351] pci 0000:00:10.0: PME# supported from D0 D2 D3hot
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.391654] pci_bus 0000:01: extended config space not accessible
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.391927] pci 0000:00:01.0: PCI bridge to [bus 01]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.392022] pci_bus 0000:00: on NUMA node 0
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.392589] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 9 10 *11 12)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.393175] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 9 10 11 12) *0, disabled.
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.393763] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 9 *10 11 12)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.394338] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 *9 10 11 12)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.400070] pci 0000:00:0d.0: vgaarb: setting as boot VGA device
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.400153] pci 0000:00:0d.0: vgaarb: VGA device added: decodes=io+mem,owns=io+mem,locks=none
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.400246] pci 0000:00:0d.0: vgaarb: bridge control possible
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.401806] vgaarb: loaded
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.402291] EDAC MC: Ver: 3.0.0
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.403231] PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.403307] PCI: pci_cache_line_size set to 32 bytes
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.403364] Expanded resource Reserved due to conflict with Adapter ROM
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.403438] e820: reserve RAM buffer [mem 0x0009f400-0x0009ffff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.403448] e820: reserve RAM buffer [mem 0x040fd800-0x07ffffff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.404804] clocksource: Switched to clocksource tsc-early
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.496672] VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.6.0
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.496889] VFS: Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.497818] AppArmor: AppArmor Filesystem Enabled
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.498030] pnp: PnP ACPI init
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.498694] system 00:00: [io  0x7000-0x700f] has been reserved
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.498775] system 00:00: [io  0x8000-0x803f] has been reserved
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.498926] system 00:00: [mem 0xfff80000-0xffffffff] could not be reserved
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.499039] system 00:00: Plug and Play ACPI device, IDs PNP0c02 (active)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.499798] pnp 00:01: Plug and Play ACPI device, IDs PNP0303 (active)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.500027] pnp 00:02: Plug and Play ACPI device, IDs PNP0f13 (active)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.500336] pnp 00:03: Plug and Play ACPI device, IDs PNP0b00 (active)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.501187] pnp 00:04: [dma 2]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.501457] pnp 00:04: Plug and Play ACPI device, IDs PNP0700 (active)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.503962] pnp 00:05: Plug and Play ACPI device, IDs PNP0501 (active)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.508756] pnp 00:06: [dma 3]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.509385] pnp 00:06: Plug and Play ACPI device, IDs PNP0401 (active)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.510238] pnp 00:07: Plug and Play ACPI device, IDs PNP0501 (disabled)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.510265] pnp: PnP ACPI: found 8 devices
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.510345] PnPBIOS: Disabled
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.558766] clocksource: acpi_pm: mask: 0xffffff max_cycles: 0xffffff, max_idle_ns: 2085701024 ns
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.558978] pci 0000:00:0f.0: BAR 6: assigned [mem 0x18000000-0x1801ffff pref]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.559076] pci 0000:00:0d.0: BAR 6: assigned [mem 0x18020000-0x1802ffff pref]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.559165] pci 0000:00:01.0: PCI bridge to [bus 01]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.559260] pci_bus 0000:00: resource 4 [io  0x0000-0xffff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.559271] pci_bus 0000:00: resource 5 [mem 0x00000000-0xffffffff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.559637] NET: Registered protocol family 2 Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.560715] tcp_listen_portaddr_hash hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 6144 bytes)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.560856] TCP established hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.560996] TCP bind hash table entries: 4096 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.561193] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 4096 bind 4096)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.561489] UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.561608] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.561984] NET: Registered protocol family 1 Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.562085] NET: Registered protocol family 44 Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.562174] pci 0000:00:00.0: Limiting direct PCI/PCI transfers
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.563567] PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] enabled at IRQ 9
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.563643] PCI: setting IRQ 9 as level-triggered
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.564010] pci 0000:00:0d.0: Video device with shadowed ROM at [mem 0x000c0000-0x000dffff]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.564120] PCI: CLS 32 bytes, default 32
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    0.564481] Unpacking initramfs...
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    1.306893] random: fast init done
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    2.795010] Freeing initrd memory: 16876K
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    2.798997] Initialise system trusted keyrings Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    2.799134] Key type blacklist registered
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    2.799561] workingset: timestamp_bits=14 max_order=17 bucket_order=3
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    2.810529] zbud: loaded
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    3.804288] tsc: Refined TSC clocksource calibration: 596.919 MHz
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    3.804395] clocksource: tsc: mask: 0xffffffffffffffff max_cycles: 0x89aaf57793, max_idle_ns: 440795228478 ns
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    3.804545] clocksource: Switched to clocksource tsc
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    6.961341] Key type asymmetric registered
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    6.961434] Asymmetric key parser 'x509' registered
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    6.961601] Block layer SCSI generic (bsg) driver version 0.4 loaded (major 249)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    6.961970] io scheduler noop registered
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    6.962039] io scheduler deadline registered
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    6.962532] io scheduler cfq registered (default)
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    6.962607] io scheduler mq-deadline registered Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    6.964407] shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    6.964592] intel_idle: does not run on family 6 model 7
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    6.964694] tsc: Marking TSC unstable due to TSC halts in idle
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    6.965723] isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards... Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    6.971460] clocksource: Switched to clocksource acpi_pm
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.067160]  01:01: card 'OPL3-SAX Sound Board'
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.067231] isapnp: 1 Plug & Play card detected total
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.067872] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 4 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.088759] 00:05: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4, base_baud = 115200) is a 16550A
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.089419] serial 00:07: [io  0x02f8-0x02ff] Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.089510] serial 00:07: [irq 3]
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.094306] serial 00:07: activated
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.114937] 00:07: ttyS1 at I/O 0x2f8 (irq = 3, base_baud = 115200) is a 16550A
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.117219] Linux agpgart interface v0.103
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.117833] agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: Intel 440BX Chipset
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.125494] agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0xf8000000
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.126404] i8042: PNP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303:KBC,PNP0f13:MICE] at 0x60,0x64 irq 1,12
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.129461] serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.129770] serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.130516] mousedev: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.131186] rtc_cmos 00:03: registered as rtc0 Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.131370] rtc_cmos 00:03: alarms up to one month, y3k, 114 bytes nvram
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.131640] ledtrig-cpu: registered to indicate activity on CPUs
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.135221] NET: Registered protocol family 10 Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.161908] input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/input0
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.162745] Segment Routing with IPv6
Mar 28 02:15:17 kernel: [    7.162939] mip6: Mobile IPv6

[continued in next message]

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Sat, 2021-03-27 at 22:42 -0700, Lou Poppler wrote:

[...] the target machine, which is a Gateway Pentium III,
with 384 MB of RAM. On this do-over, I frequently checked the output of 'free'
on VC2, and never saw the free memory drop below 200,000 bytes.

Perhaps obviously, I should have written 200,000 KB, not bytes.

Free Total Used Free
MEM 378196 32740 245888
SWAP 1959888 0 1959888

I probably should make this into a bug report, but I don't know what package to
complain about. Any guidance would be welcome.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Sat, 27 Mar 2021, Lou Poppler wrote:

This is a more detailed do-over of a failed install I encountered earlier today
while testing debian-live-10.9.0-i386-cinnamon+nonfree.iso during the 10.9 release testing party on #debian-cd.

[...]

Mar 28 03:15:07 main-menu[228]: INFO: Menu item 'live-installer' selected
Mar 28 03:15:17 base-installer: info: Using squashfs support for /cdrom/live/filesystem.squashfs
Mar 28 03:15:17 anna-install: Installing squashfs-modules
Mar 28 03:15:17 anna[10712]: DEBUG: retrieving squashfs-modules-4.19.0-16-686-di 4.19.181-1
Mar 28 03:15:18 kernel: [ 3613.491313] squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher
Mar 28 03:15:18 base-installer: error: /cdrom/live/filesystem.squashfs has failed to be mounted as squashfs.
Mar 28 03:15:18 main-menu[228]: (process:10659): modprobe: FATAL: Module loop not found in directory /lib/modules/4.19.0-16-686
Mar 28 03:15:18 main-menu[228]: (process:10659): mount: can't setup loop device: No such device or address
Mar 28 03:15:18 main-menu[228]: WARNING **: Configuring 'live-installer' failed with error code 1
Mar 28 03:15:18 main-menu[228]: WARNING **: Menu item 'live-installer' failed.

The problem seems to be that no loop module is available, so the squashfs
can't be loop-mounted from the file on the installer medium. Did the loop-modules-4.19.0-16-686-di package get lost somewhere?

Best regards,
Anne Bezemer

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Mon, 2021-03-29 at 20:16 +0200, J.A. Bezemer wrote:

On Sat, 27 Mar 2021, Lou Poppler wrote:

This is a more detailed do-over of a failed install I encountered earlier today
while testing debian-live-10.9.0-i386-cinnamon+nonfree.iso during the 10.9 release testing party on #debian-cd.

[...]

Mar 28 03:15:07 main-menu[228]: INFO: Menu item 'live-installer' selected Mar 28 03:15:17 base-installer: info: Using squashfs support for /cdrom/live/filesystem.squashfs
Mar 28 03:15:17 anna-install: Installing squashfs-modules
Mar 28 03:15:17 anna[10712]: DEBUG: retrieving squashfs-modules-4.19.0-16-686-di 4.19.181-1
Mar 28 03:15:18 kernel: [ 3613.491313] squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher
Mar 28 03:15:18 base-installer: error: /cdrom/live/filesystem.squashfs has failed to be mounted as squashfs.
Mar 28 03:15:18 main-menu[228]: (process:10659): modprobe: FATAL: Module loop not found in directory /lib/modules/4.19.0-16-686
Mar 28 03:15:18 main-menu[228]: (process:10659): mount: can't setup loop device: No such device or address
Mar 28 03:15:18 main-menu[228]: WARNING **: Configuring 'live-installer' failed with error code 1
Mar 28 03:15:18 main-menu[228]: WARNING **: Menu item 'live-installer' failed.

The problem seems to be that no loop module is available, so the squashfs can't be loop-mounted from the file on the installer medium. Did the loop-modules-4.19.0-16-686-di package get lost somewhere?

Best regards,
Anne Bezemer

I don't see it in there, but searching is tedious in busybox (for example no recursive option in ls ?). Here is some sneakernet output from that installer, still running at the same point as before. Other suggestions for searching happily welcomed.

ls -al /lib/modules
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root            60 Mar 19 14:29 . drwxr-xr-x   18 root     root          1280 Mar 19 14:29 .. drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root           280 Mar 28 03:15 4.19.0-16-686
ls -al /lib/modules/4.19.0-16-686/
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root           280 Mar 28 03:15 . drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root            60 Mar 19 14:29 ..
drwxr-xr-x    7 root     root           140 Mar 19 14:29 kernel
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         91582 Mar 28 03:15 modules.alias
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         88888 Mar 28 03:15 modules.alias.bin
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          4417 Mar 19 14:29 modules.builtin
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          5829 Mar 28 03:15 modules.builtin.bin
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         20699 Mar 28 03:15 modules.dep
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         32618 Mar 28 03:15 modules.dep.bin
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           150 Mar 28 03:15 modules.devname
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        145963 Mar 19 14:29 modules.order
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           226 Mar 28 03:15 modules.softdep
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        113692 Mar 28 03:15 modules.symbols
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        135364 Mar 28 03:15 modules.symbols.bin
ls -al /lib/modules/4.19.0-16-686/kernel
drwxr-xr-x    7 root     root           140 Mar 19 14:29 . drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root           280 Mar 28 03:15 .. drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root           380 Mar 28 03:03 crypto
drwxr-xr-x   30 root     root           600 Mar 28 03:07 drivers
drwxr-xr-x   14 root     root           300 Mar 28 03:15 fs drwxr-xr-x    4 root     root           260 Mar 28 03:03 lib
drwxr-xr-x   10 root     root           200 Mar 28 03:03 net ls -al /lib/modules/4.19.0-16-686/kernel/fs
drwxr-xr-x   14 root     root           300 Mar 28 03:15 . drwxr-xr-x    7 root     root           140 Mar 19 14:29 .. drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root            60 Mar 28 03:03 btrfs
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root            60 Mar 22 07:28 configfs
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root            60 Mar 28 03:03 crypto
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root            60 Mar 28 03:03 efivarfs
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root            60 Mar 28 03:03 ext4
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root            80 Mar 22 07:28 fat
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root            60 Mar 22 07:28 isofs
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root            60 Mar 28 03:03 jbd2
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root            60 Mar 28 03:03 jfs
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         12131 Mar 19 14:29 mbcache.ko
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root           100 Mar 22 07:28 nls
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root            60 Mar 28 03:15 squashfs
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root            60 Mar 28 03:03 xfs
ls -al /lib/modules/4.19.0-16-686/kernel/fs/squashfs
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root            60 Mar 28 03:15 . drwxr-xr-x   14 root     root           300 Mar 28 03:15 .. -rw-r--r--    1 root     root         64603 Mar 19 14:29 squashfs.ko
ls -al /lib/modules/4.19.0-16-686/kernel/fs/isofs
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root            60 Mar 22 07:28 . drwxr-xr-x   14 root     root           300 Mar 28 03:15 .. -rw-r--r--    1 root     root         46655 Mar 19 14:29 isofs.ko

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Mon, 2021-03-29 at 20:16 +0200, J.A. Bezemer wrote:

The problem seems to be that no loop module is available, so the squashfs can't be loop-mounted from the file on the installer medium. Did the loop-modules-4.19.0-16-686-di package get lost somewhere?

Update: Steve McIntyre spent some time on IRC helping to debug this.
The problem is "Low Memory" mode getting too aggressive kicking out components from the RAM FS, including that loop module. We found a low-mem menu that is supposed to load and keep that module (and others) but it doesn't seem to be working correctly right now. I even anna-install'ed the module again from the network on one attempt, but the installer couldn't find it anymore.

Just to be clear, we are talking here about trying to use the text-mode installer from the boot menu of a buster debian-live ISO image.
I'm trying to take a look at the lowmem code now.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Mon, 2021-03-29 at 18:40 -0700, Lou Poppler wrote:

On Mon, 2021-03-29 at 20:16 +0200, J.A. Bezemer wrote:

The problem seems to be that no loop module is available, so the squashfs can't be loop-mounted from the file on the installer medium. Did the loop-modules-4.19.0-16-686-di package get lost somewhere?

Update: Steve McIntyre spent some time on IRC helping to debug this.
The problem is "Low Memory" mode getting too aggressive kicking out components
from the RAM FS, including that loop module. We found a low-mem menu that is supposed to load and keep that module (and others) but it doesn't seem to be working correctly right now. I even anna-install'ed the module again from the
network on one attempt, but the installer couldn't find it anymore.

Just to be clear, we are talking here about trying to use the text-mode installer from the boot menu of a buster debian-live ISO image.
I'm trying to take a look at the lowmem code now.

loop.ko is in /lib/modules/4.19.0-16-686/kernel/drivers/block/
which is deleted by the following aggressive code in  lowmem-1.47/partman/init.d/05lowmem_modules

-------------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
set -e 
if [ ! -e /var/lib/lowmem ]; then
        exit 0
fi

# Let's not delete anything yet if no discs have been found
if [ "$(list-devices disk)" ]; then
        if cd /lib/modules/*/kernel/drivers; then                 rm -rf net cdrom ide ieee1394 input scsi usb video parport block
        fi
fi
--------------------------------------------------------------

I defeated this by removing /var/lib/lowmem at VC2 before partman, and this allowed the installer to find the loop.ko module. However it failed soon after:

Mar 30 14:17:22 kernel: [ 1004.240890] Adding 979960k swap on /dev/sda3. Priority:-3 extents:1 across:979960k FS
Mar 30 14:17:23 kernel: [ 1005.647027] EXT4-fs (sda8): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: errors=remount-ro
Mar 30 14:17:23 kernel: [ 1005.700346] EXT4-fs (sda1): mounting ext3 file system using the ext4 subsystem
Mar 30 14:17:23 kernel: [ 1005.871947] EXT4-fs (sda1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
Mar 30 14:17:25 apt-install: Queueing package e2fsprogs for later installation Mar 30 14:17:26 main-menu[227]: INFO: Falling back to the package description for brltty-udeb
Mar 30 14:17:26 main-menu[227]: INFO: Falling back to the package description for brltty-udeb
Mar 30 14:17:26 main-menu[227]: INFO: Menu item 'live-installer' selected
Mar 30 14:17:28 base-installer: info: Using squashfs support for /cdrom/live/filesystem.squashfs
Mar 30 14:17:28 anna-install: Installing squashfs-modules
Mar 30 14:17:28 anna[8759]: ERROR **: can't find packages file
Mar 30 14:17:29 kernel: [ 1011.708557] loop: module loaded
Mar 30 14:17:29 base-installer: error: /cdrom/live/filesystem.squashfs has failed to be mounted as squashfs.
Mar 30 14:17:29 main-menu[227]: (process:8706): modprobe: FATAL: Module squashfs not found in directory /lib/modules/4.19.0-16-686
Mar 30 14:17:29 main-menu[227]: (process:8706): mount: mounting /dev/loop0 on /mnt failed: No such device

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I need to investigate more with this. At the failure point above, free RAM is 212100 KB. What I am leaning toward suggesting is to modify the code in
lowmem-1.47/debian-installer-startup.d/S15lowmem
to allow the user to set lowmem=0 on the installer command line
(and add more detail to the install manual documentation of lowmem).

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Tue, 2021-03-30 at 09:38 -0700, Lou Poppler wrote:
[...]

Mar 30 14:17:28 base-installer: info: Using squashfs support for /cdrom/live/filesystem.squashfs
Mar 30 14:17:28 anna-install: Installing squashfs-modules
Mar 30 14:17:28 anna[8759]: ERROR **: can't find packages file
Mar 30 14:17:29 kernel: [ 1011.708557] loop: module loaded
Mar 30 14:17:29 base-installer: error: /cdrom/live/filesystem.squashfs has failed to be mounted as squashfs.
Mar 30 14:17:29 main-menu[227]: (process:8706): modprobe: FATAL: Module squashfs not found in directory /lib/modules/4.19.0-16-686
Mar 30 14:17:29 main-menu[227]: (process:8706): mount: mounting /dev/loop0 on /mnt failed: No such device

------
I need to investigate more with this. At the failure point above, free RAM is
212100 KB. What I am leaning toward suggesting is to modify the code in
lowmem-1.47/debian-installer-startup.d/S15lowmem
to allow the user to set lowmem=0 on the installer command line
(and add more detail to the install manual documentation of lowmem).

For comparison, I ran the same installer from the same  debian-live-10.9.0-i386-cinnamon+nonfree.iso image copied to a USB stick, on the
i686 netbook with 512 MB RAM. It installed OK, with no drama, and boots to the cinnamon desktop now.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)